


i can't escape the way i love you

by drowsyreaper



Series: all the good girls go to hell [2]
Category: Twilight Series - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Book: New Moon, Edward Cullen Bashing, Everyone's favorite activity, Gen, How is Edward/Consequences not a ship already?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:21:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25851244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drowsyreaper/pseuds/drowsyreaper
Summary: Edward has always prided himself on his speed. But even he can't outrun his mistakes.*set after chapter 7 of we fall apart as it gets dark
Relationships: Edward Cullen/Consequences
Series: all the good girls go to hell [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1840528
Comments: 1
Kudos: 31





	i can't escape the way i love you

**Author's Note:**

> The Holy Spirit descended upon me and said "Drowsy, listen to me. I give unto you a task of great importance. Write about Edward being a whiny little crybaby who ruins everything. Because he is. He's an emo centenarian with a boring wardrobe who keeps repeating high school. Look at all those khaki's. Forget all the murder, he's going to hell for embodying the fashion, ethics, and economics of the 1% without even the pretense of contributing to society. Drag him." And who am I to deny the Holy Spirit?
> 
> Anyway, this is a one shot set between chapters 7 and 8 of my hatefic "we fall apart as it gets dark" and it really won't make a lot of sense without having read that. But some of you are going to go ahead and read this anyway, confusion be damned, because why not. I respect that. So here's a brief run down of events that matter. 
> 
> Edward left Bella just as he did in New Moon. Cannon events happen mostly the same, maybe a little out of order, but the important divergence is that Bella did not cliff dive. Instead she was attacked in her home by one of Victoria's scouts. Probably Riley. I don't really care. She survived, but her home was set on fire while escaping and everyone thinks she's dead. I mean, except for the Quileutes, who helped her escape, but Alice can't see them, now can she? Cue Edward running to Volterra to commit suicide by cop-I-mean-vampire-overlords. Except there's no way Aro is gonna waste a perfectly good talent like Edward, right? And Carlisle's a friend; Aro couldn't possibly kill his friend's son, right? 
> 
> Anyway, this is the story of how Edward gets press-ganged into joining the Volturi and everything is awful forever.

Edward ran.

Wind and trees ripped at his clothes, tearing them mercilessly. He only wished they could do as much to his flesh. He deserved it. He deserved the eternal damnation that awaited him  _ if only he could die _ .

When had everything gone so  _ wrong _ ? How had events conspired to find him alone and on the run in  _ Godforsaken Ohio _ ?

Well, the easiest explanation was the Volturi. It was always the Volturi, lately. He was in Ohio because of the morning's poorly conceived attack. Caius’ paranoia and Jane’s sadism had once again converged to make needless conflict. There was no threat at the markets, no risk of exposing secrets. If anything, the people who ran them had a better grasp of privacy than the Volturi, who had only recently discovered such gatherings existed. But where smarter men might have seen allies, Aro saw a power vacuum. Caius, enemies. A silent, cold war had been raging for years. A war they were losing. And only Edward seemed aware of it. 

For all the good it did him. He was still lost in Ohio.

Edward ran.

No one knew how to fight the things they’d found. The shifters and the elves and the sorcerers and the lizard people. Person? Edward hadn’t been on that mission and the recollections of the others didn’t quite match. And then there were guns. The most mortal, mundane weapon, and the lauded Volturi Guard couldn’t even handle that. What was the point anymore? 

The last victory had been the first. Victoria has created a newborn army in the Northwest. Edward hadn’t been on that mission, either; as Aro’s newest acquisition, he’d been locked up tight in Volterra. But he’d heard all about it when they got back. All those lives lost - to burning bites and blood lust - all for one woman’s revenge. And for what? Bella was already dead. In a  _ house fire _ , of  _ all the human _ \- And Edward had tried  _ so hard _ to save her from the flames…. 

Everything had gone wrong.

Edward ran.

The skirmish with Victoria had reminded Aro and Caius of how little attention they paid to the Americas. And so they’d begun...looking around

They had literally stumbled upon Maria’s uprising at the border. He supposed that could be counted as a victory in that they had suffered no losses. But Maria and all but the most mindless of her newborns had vanished. She was used to working in the desert and sun. The Volturi were not. Even with their best trackers, they couldn’t follow Maria without risking their own discovery. And so they left.

After that was the discovery of a lost coven in the Northwest Territories. Aro sought to press the issue of his own importance. The coven, who had been getting by just fine without Volturi law and order, disagreed. 

_ That  _ had been the first blow to Aro’s illusion of control. This coven didn’t want him. They didn’t  _ need  _ him. More than that, they were living quite nicely alongside other monsters, tucked between two shifter communities and other things Edward couldn’t name, a picture of coexistence he wished Carlisle could see. And when Caius had tried to force the issue, the great Volturi Guard had been tossed out on their asses. The isolated location kept their defeat quiet, at least. But it had shown the Volturi that there was more in the world than vampires to rule and werewolves to kill. And they were ill equipped to deal with it.

Edward ran.

‘Recruiting’ more guards had become imperative to replace the ones they lost. The ones torn asunder. The ones blown up. The ones who simply disappeared. They were losing so many people. It almost made Edward feel better, seeing first hand the slow decimation of Aro’s forces. 

Except it was too easy to replace them. 

Outside the guard, no one knew the Volturi were losing. No one even knew there was a war. Had Edward not been in the thick of it, he wouldn’t have either. He would be like all the rest, seeing only the offer: blood and power if you joined, and fire and ash if you didn’t.

Edward had wanted fire and ash when he ran to the Volturi. And every day, he wanted it more and more. The people he’d killed, the things he’d done- the knowledge that he would have to do them again, day after day after day. Fire was the least he deserved and all he desired. But Aro wouldn’t give it to him. Not as he wanted. Aro had made clear, in those first agonizing months in Volterra, that he would give Edward all the death he could handle. Just never his own. He’d proven it in that very first month. 

His family had learned of his captivity and Eleazar, still in good standing with Aro, had visited the city to negotiate with Carmen and Tanya in tow. There had been a meeting. Then Carmen and Eleazar had left in a hurry, and Tanya’s ashes had been given to Edward. A gift. Since he wanted ashes so much. Aro then promised him all the fire and ash he could ever want. Emmett’s ashes. Esme’s. Even Carlisle’s. 

Edward ran.

He had just wanted to die. He’d ruined Bella’s life with his carelessness. He could’ve saved her if only he’d  _ been  _ there! Charlie and Renee would have never recovered, he knew that. Two more lives destroyed on his account. Victoria’s grudge and the hundreds of lives lost to that futile cause. And now this long,  _ stupid  _ war. It all began with him.

He ran and ran and ran until his robes were black tatters, trailing him like the tail of a shooting star, burning and burning and burning until there was nothing left. Maybe, maybe if he was fast enough, he-

No. He would never be fast enough to outrun his mistakes. No pain would ever be enough to make up for the suffering he’d caused. He had almost made peace with that. If the Volturi wouldn’t kill him, then his conscription with them would be his punishment, for nothing else could torment him as much. That was what he thought.

And then he’d seen her. 

The ghost of Bella Swan.

Bathed in the headlights of the cars at her back as she hurled a flash bomb towards him, she looked like an avenging angel. Then, with a gun in her hands and fire in her eyes. He’d thought she was there to kill him. To release him, at long last.

But he was alive. 

_ He was alive _ .

Edward ran.

**Author's Note:**

> Spare some change for the Quileute Tribe: https://mthg.org/


End file.
